1: That they are happy, lighthearted places.
Highly successful workplace cultures “are energized and engaged, but at their core their members are oriented less around achieving happiness than around solving hard problems together,” Daniel Coyle writes in The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.
High-performing teams embrace “many moments of high-candor feedback” and “uncomfortable truth-telling,” Daniel writes.
Exhibit one: The San Antonio Spurs and their Head Coach Gregg Popovich, also known as Pop.
The Spurs are “the most successful team in American sports in the past 25 years,” Daniel writes, winning “five championships and a higher percentage of games than the New England Patriots, the St. Louis Cardinals, or any other storied franchise.”
Pop is a yeller. He provides “high volume” feedback to his players daily.
How does he deliver “tough, truthful feedback without causing side effects of dissent and disappointment?” Daniel asks.
Yesterday, we looked at a “magic” phrase researchers found that boosted students’ efforts and performance: “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know you can reach them.”
Daniel believes this type of feedback is so powerful because it “delivers a burst of belonging cues.”
Pop’s method of delivering feedback also communicates strong belonging cues.
Yes, he yells.
Yes, he communicates the unvarnished truth.
But he delivers the feedback with a “suite of other cues that affirm and strengthen the fabric of the relationships.”
2: His methods involve three specific feedback strategies:
• Feedback Strategy #1: Personal, up-close connection. Pop “does all his communicating in person, up close,” Daniel notes.
He is “a studious avoider of technology. He does not use his computer; his assistant prints out emails. While his staff persuaded him to buy an iPhone last year so that he could receive texts, he has yet to send one.”
“Hug ’em and hold ’em” is how Gregg describes the coaching staff’s job. During team practices, his body language and focused attention on individual players translates as “I care about you.”
• Feedback Strategy #2: Performance feedback. “Relentless coaching and criticism that translates as ‘We have high standards here.'” Enough said.
• Feedback Strategy #3: Big-picture perspective, which includes “larger conversations about politics, history, and food that translate as Life is bigger than Basketball,” Daniel observes.
Example: The Spurs have gathered to watch film of the prior night’s loss. The players “sat down with trepidation, expecting Popovich to detail the sins of the previous night,” Daniel writes.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, Pop played a CNN documentary on the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act featuring Martin Luther King, Jr., Lyndon Johnson, and the Selma marches.
Afterward, Pop asked the players questions.
“He always asks questions, and those questions are always the same: personal, direct, focused on the big picture,” Daniel notes: “What did you think of it?” “What would you have done in that situation?”
Instead of dissecting the prior night’s game, the conversation shifted “and became something of a seminar, a conversation,” Daniel explains.
Were the players surprised?
No. “This kind of thing happens all the time,” Daniel observes. Whether the discussion centered on “the war in Syria, or a change of government in Argentina, gay marriage, institutional racism, terrorism—it doesn’t really matter, as long as it delivers the message [Pop] wants it to deliver: There are bigger things than basketball to which we are all connected.”
“It’s so easy to be insulated when you’re a professional athlete,” Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford says. “Pop uses these moments to connect us. He loves that we come from so many different places. That could pull us apart, but he makes sure that everybody feels connected and engaged to something bigger.”
3: These three feedback strategies operate from three different perspectives, “the way a skilled director uses a camera,” Daniel notes.
“First, he zooms in close, creating an individualized connection.
“Then he operates in the middle distance, showing players the truth about their performance.
“Then he pans out to show the larger context in which their interaction is taking place.”
Separately, each strategy would have some impact.
“But together they create a steady stream of magical feedback,” Daniel writes. “Every dinner, every elbow touch, every impromptu seminar on politics and history adds up to build a relational narrative: You are part of this group. This group is special. I believe you can reach those standards.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: What strategies am I using to deliver unvarnished feedback to my team while also building strong relationships?
Action: Discuss as a team.